ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on traditional television, namely free television (commonly referred to as free over-the-air broadcast television) and cable/pay television. Digital/online-enabled platforms are a major source of revenue for content providers, as more and more consumers are utilizing their laptops, tablets, and smartphones as their primary sources of video content. This growth is obviously welcome and has helped to compensate for the decline in physical disc/DVD sales, but it requires the licensor to be extra vigilant in determining what rights are granted and for which exploitation windows. The US market is divided into terrestrial over-the-air national networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the CW) and cable or satellite-delivered television stations. Networks are somewhat complicated entities, however, in that a network is really a grouping of local television stations that are either owned by or affiliated with the parent network company. Alongside affiliate stations that make up a national network, there remain many local independent television stations.
